Forster s second novel, The Longest Journey, is an emotional bildungsroman described by the author himself as the book I am most glad to have written The novel follows the character of Rickie Elliot from his Cambridge days through a problematic engagement and involves compelling secondary characters such as the illegitimate half brother Rickie never knew existed Lionel Trilling described the novel as Perhaps the most brilliant, the most dramatic, and the most passionate of Forster s works. Download The Longest Journey – groundhogwalking.co.uk

This is not an easy novel for me to review because I love E.M Forster, but I didn t love this book The overall storyline I liked well enough a young Cambridge man discusses philosophy with his fellow students, finishes life at university, which he has enjoyed immensely, and tries to establish himself as a writer, only to be lured away by a woman, by marriage, by the woman s brother and his insistence on the main character making his way in the world by teaching instead of writing, thus markin This is not an easy novel for me to review because I love E.M Forster, but I didn t love this book The overall storyline I liked well enough a young Cambridge man discusses philosophy with his fellow students, finishes life at university, which he has enjoyed immensely, and tries to establish himself as a writer, only to be lured away by a woman, by marriage, by the woman s brother and his insistence on the main character making his way in the world by teaching instead of writing, thus marking a deroute which only truth and a half brother he didn t know he had might help him out of In the process, of course, he loses touch with his real friends and his real self.The problem for me lay mainly in the tone and in the author s intrusion There were way too many metaphysical musings, references to Pan or Aphrodite or some other symbol that pertained to the story, which stopped me in my narrative drive and irritated me Had the characters themsel...

Oh how I suck up these wordy early 20th Century tales of love and woe and irony.I truly enjoyed this book, I really yearned to read it and I could not really express why to someone who would say What Nothing happens It is just a bunch of stuffy people worrying about manners.Oh, but it is that and so muchIf you re like me and you could really go for some Henry James, D.H Lawrence, or some other canonized British European American Ex Patriot from those times, then you will like th Oh how I suck up these wordy early 20th Century tales of love and woe and irony.I truly enjoyed this book, I really yearned to read it and I could not really express why to someone who would say What Nothing happens It is just a bunch of stuffy people worrying about manners.Oh, but it is t...

It is described by Stephen Spender, I think, as Forster s most accomplished work It is flawed, the girl in the novel exceptionally tedious, the ideal brute savage too ideal But there are memorable scenes the awful opening speech for the new term, the depiction of bullying, the atmosphere of convention and restraint which closes in on Ricky There is much to be said for the refining qualities of censorship when considering this novel Whatever one thinks of it, it is a far finer novel than It is described by Stephen Spender, I think, as Forster s most accomplished w...

This book depressed me slightly the ending seemed to convey that life is alot of dead ends and perhaps a bit aimless I agree that life is often this way, but I m not sure I like it in literature I absolutely loved Ansell s character, though, and wish he were in the bookI think Ansell and Rickie s friendship wasinteresting than anything with Agnes The idea of reality I absolutely loved reading about I believe someone said that Forster is the professor with the door always open This book depressed me slightly the ending seemed to convey that life is alot of dead ends and perhaps a bit aimless I agree that life is often this way, but I m not sure I like it in literature I absolutely loved Ansell s character, though, and wish he were in the bookI think Ansell and Rickie s friendship wasinteresting than anything with Agnes The idea of reality I absolutely loved reading about I believe someone said that Forster is the professor with the door always open, and that s so true in many ways The philosophic questions in the book whether people can lose that spirit of life Agnes did when Gerald died , or forget what people are like like Aunt Emily , the question of whether the cow is there all these themes are easily dismissed as abstract and incomprehensible, but Forster explains and illustrates Although I did ...

TLJ was Forster s favourite novel, and now I ve read it I can see why If you ve read the The Machine Stops collection of short stories and a biography of Forster, you can have endless fun in the Cambridge section playing spot the biographical detail Rickie comes so very, very close to being a self insert In fact, he probably started life as one, but as soon as he leaves Cambridge, his life takes a completely different turn and he ends up possibly representing the road not taken of the conve TLJ was Forster s favourite novel, and now I ve read it I can see why If you ve read the The Machine Stops collection of short stories and a biography of Forster, you can have endless fun in the Cambridge section playing spot the biographical detail Rickie comes so very, very close to being a self insert In fact, he probably started life as one, but as soon as he leaves Cambridge, his life takes a completely different turn and he ends up possibly representing the road not taken of the conventional life Ansell seems to me to bear a marked resemblance to HOM, the student Forster I want to say fancied or had a crush on , but neither of those seems quite right Anyway, that s pretty much what it amounted to, though about halfway through Rickie and Ansell switch with their RL counterparts so that it s Rickie who plumps for middle class r...

Preserving Family Secrets Honoring Family Dreams This 1907 novel probes the gradual maturation of a young Cambridge student, Ricki Elliot grappling with various life issues It is in his favorite haunt, a delightful dell some distance from the Varsity, that he recounts to his male peers the sad tale of his childhood and youth for this fellow, smaller and lame, is now without parents His very nickname was his father s cruel jest re the boy s rickety locomotion Prone to daydreaming about bei Preserving Family Secrets Ho...

As shocking as it may be, I d never read anything by E.M Forster I happened upon my dusty, 1922 printed copy by luck as I browsed through one of the buildings in my favorite used book store, The Book Barn in Niantic, CT What drew me to the book at the time was the following blurb printed among the opening pages A New Directions Wartime Book This Complete Copyright Edition Is Produced In Full Compliance With The Government s Regulations For Conserving Paper And Other Essential Materials I d As shocking as it may be, I d never read anything by E.M Forster I happened upon my dusty, 1922 printed copy by luck as I brows...

As a limited but interesting point of comparison, this is a little like a novel version of The Education of Henry Adams Unlike Adams, the protagonist here is educated on the cusp of the 20th century rather than on the pinnacle of 19th century thinking However, the lapse of time in between has changed little The protagonist here struggles to apply his Cambridge education to a changing world and to apply himself to meaningful work The choices he faces as a teacher and something of an idealist As a limited but interesting point of comparison, this is a little like a novel...

THE LONGEST JOURNEY U.S 1922 UK 1907 E M ForsterI m a big fan of Forster s novels, but this one left me cold It s the life story of Rickie Frederick Elliot, a young man whom we meet as he is enrolled at a Cambridge college He was a sensitive and delicate young man with a deformity supposedly inherited that left one leg shorter than the other His passion was to become a writer We meet Agnes and Herbert Pembroke, brother and sister, when they visit Rickie at his college Ev THE LONGEST JOURNEY U.S 1922 UK 1907 E M ForsterI m a big fan of Forster s novels, but this one left me cold It s the life story of Rickie Frederick Elliot, a young man whom we meet as he is enrolled at a Cambridge college He was a sensitive and delicate young man with a deformity supposedly inherited that left one leg shorter than the other His passion was to become a writer We meet Agnes and Herbert Pembroke, brother and sister, when they visit Rickie at his college Eventually Rickie and Agnes marry, but it is ultimately unsuccessful He takes a teaching job at a minor public school, Sawston, where Herbert was a housemaster He is forced to take this job when his writings are not successful enough to support him and h...

Another wonderful book from EM Forster This is the fourth of his books that I ve read and I m in love with them all I grew quite attached to Rickie and felt the weight of the world he was bearing This book delivered some genuine shocks I don t remembe...